Toward The Light
by boywiththebread's girl
Summary: In this eerily similar twilight story, a girl who has sworn she hates all vampires but her mother will discover it is not what you love, but who the person is and how they are able to change your world.


**New girl** In my dream, I was running. Running from something unknown. It was a very dark place and all I could see was a tiny streak of light and my terrified face. I tripped and stumbled a lot, but I didn't stop. My legs were numb and it felt like they were about explode. My rib cage was pounding and I wrapped one arm protectively around it, but the pain would not subside. I looked over my shoulder and whatever it is I saw, terrified me and I pushed my sore legs to go faster.

I saw it, then. It was a small circle of light. I stopped running abruptly and reached out to touch it. I wanted it more than anything else in the world. I wanted to see the light touching my skin and feel the warmth that would come with it. I stretched out my hand as far as it would go. My hand was seconds away from the light…

Suddenly, though, I felt a sharp pang of pain in my head and my eyelids fluttered open.

I was still in my room, but I was no longer in my bed. I was on the floor, next to my dresser. Great. I fell out of bed again and now I would have a bruise. Well, at least I didn't wake up screaming like last night. I'm pretty sure my mom would've taken me to a shrink if that happened again. The falling out of bed thing was sadly not new either .

The dream itself was also not new. In fact I'd been having this same dream for the last five nights in a row.

I took a deep breath and sat up. My digital clock said it was 3:00am_. Not again_.

I groaned and stood up. I turned on my lamp and observed the damage I had done this time. My phone was on the floor and the chord was no longer plugged in, my sheets and covers were all tied together in a mess on my wooden floor and my favorite perfume bottle was just a mess of broken glass and pink liquid that would leave a stain, no doubt.

I sighed and walked into the restroom to observe the damage on _myself. _

I walked in slowly, one foot at a time and turned on the light. The person in the mirror was practically a stranger. My hair was a bird's nest as far as I could tell. It was damp with my sweat, making it look like seaweed, and there was a mess of knots and tangles. My face was dead white, and my eyes looked like black holes. And there was a slightly reddish bruise on the corner of my left eye. Wonderful.

So this was how I was going to look on my first day as a junior. Well, I might as well let them see who I really am, because if these dreams continued then this was probably how I was going to look every morning from now on until the end of the year.

I decided to take a shower and try to tame the wild animal that was my hair. I turned the knob to the right as much as it would go. I liked my showers to be as hot as saunas; it relaxed me more.

I undressed while the water heated up and grabbed my favorite strawberry shampoo and citrus conditioner. This combination always made my hair smell like fresh flowers. Different from all the others. So what. I was used to being different.

I stepped into the burning hot water and I let it relax my sore muscles for a while. I poured half of the shampoo bottle onto my hand and rubbed it into my chocolate brown hair. I hoped that my eyes were getting their deep blue color back and my skin was getting back to it's usual mildly pale tone.

I probably emptied that conditioner bottle whole just to get rid of all the tangles and knots my hair had, but by the end of the shower, my hair was rid of all the unwanted knots along with probably half of the total mass of my hair.

I sighed as I stepped out of the parade of hot water after what seemed like hours to me, but I knew it was probably just 10 minutes at the most. I erased a portion of the mist that had taken over my bathroom mirror and stared at the person looking back at me.

Well, for the most part, I looked okay, just that my skin was still a little paler than usual, but not the dead white it had been before, at least. And my eyes looked different but not in a bad way. They weren't black any more. They were my usual deep ocean blue color.

I smiled to myself. I knew the shower would make me look at least a little bit more normal.

Then the corners of my mouth began to turn down. The corner of my left eye was a faded rosy color. Well not everything could look normal. After all, it was me. Ava Crane, the outsider.

I sighed and grabbed my lilac lotion and my blow-dryer and headed for my room. As soon as I was in, the first thing I looked for was my digital clock. It now read 3:17am. Not particularly better, but at least now it was 17 minutes closer to 7:00am when I would've really had to have woken up. After all, I really wasn't surprised to have fallen out of my bed at three in the morning. In fact, I'd been expecting much worse.

These dreams had really been kicking the crap out of me. The first night, I knocked over my lamp and it landed on top of me; that was the cause for the fading purple bruise on my right shoulder. The second and third night I'd fallen out of bed like tonight and the fourth night (also the most brutal)I had woken up screaming, knocked over the frame which held my artwork, which in turn fell on top of me and sent glass splinters all the way from my room to the restroom and beyond. So I guess I cant blame my mom for getting all hysterical and wanting to call the psychiatrist as soon as the first light of dawn broke. Luckily, though, I had been able to convince her that it was just a one time thing and it would never happen again. Yeah, right.

I tried to look on the bright side of things: I wouldn't be late for once. But that was only one slightly good thing in the midst of all the incredibly worse.

I looked through my closet for something normal-looking to wear. After about a dozen try-ones, I ended up in a dark green sweater, my jeans and tennis shoes. After I was dressed and my hair had been blow-dried, I stared at myself in the full length mirror. I had to admit that after being cleaned up, I looked pretty nice. I smiled and sat up on my bed. I never really thought of myself as pretty, but today, I thought I got pretty close.

I was exhausted. I almost climbed back into my bed and went back to sleep, but then I voted against the idea. I knew I would probably have the same terrifying dream and I would wake up looking like the same zombie I was this morning when I first woke up.

So I spent the next four hours reading _Oliver Twist _for the seventh time. I was on chapter 29 when I glanced at the clock. It now read 6:56. Humph. Only four more minutes until I'm supposed to wake up. I probably shouldn't read anymore, I'd just end up getting caught in the story and forget all about those four minutes.

I looked out the window at the misty fog, that was all the sun could produce, that blanketed over the city of Seward, Alaska that housed 2,830(now 2,831) people and one vampire.

I didn't mind having nearly no sun on a rather daily basis. In fact, I loved it because that way my mom was able to go out in public without having her secret exposed. What I did mind was the cold. Not that Iowa had ever really been toasty, but at least in the summer and spring, the temperature sometimes went to 75° at the most, but here I'd bet my whole year's allowance, that they had never gone over 60.

I sighed and hopped down from the tiny yellow couch my mother bought me four years ago on my thirteenth birthday… just before my dad died.

No. I couldn't think about that, so I concentrated on putting all my books in my book bag and stuffing a granola bar down my throat.

Then I heard my mom shuffling around upstairs.

"Ava," I heard her call in her beautiful, melodic voice. "Where are you?"

"I'm down here, mom," I called to her, though I was aware she already knew where I was and was just doing this for show. She liked making me pretend I had a real mom.

I heard her mumble something to herself and I thought I picked out the word "strange". I heard her delicate footsteps as she walked into the room. It didn't surprise me that she was already dressed and showered. That was just my mom. She was always ready for action at the first light of day. Mostly because she didn't sleep.

Her long reddish-brown hair was up in a half pony-tail and she wore a knee length khaki skirt and a deep violet v-neck blouse that complimented her pale tone so evenly, it made me gasp. You'd think that with her being my mom and having nearly five years to get used to her beauty, It wouldn't surprise me so much, but each day her breath taking beauty startled me as much as it had the first day she was changed. At least now, though, her eyes weren't bright crimson the way most vampires had them. No, today her soft butterscotch eyes were full of concern.

"You didn't have another one of those dreams again, did you?" she asked, her concern turning into suspicion. Her pale, beautiful face hardened.

"No," I answered promptly, covering the corner of my left eye with my hair and keeping my head down. She could always see it in my eyes when I lied.

"Oh, really," she said, narrowing her eyes, "then why did I hear a loud thump at, I don't know, three in the morning?" she folded her arms across her chest, triumphant.

"Oh, but that's not all," she continued, her eyes narrowing into slits " I also heard the run of a shower about two minutes later and I saw your favorite perfume bottle broken on your floor, oh and not to mention that bruise on your eye that I'm sure wasn't there yesterday."

Oh, crap. "I-I don't know," I stammered, still keeping my face down. Of course, I knew she would hear, what with the perfect eyesight and hearing that vampires had, but I still had hoped she wouldn't talk about it. I mean after the last four nights of talking about what was making me depressed and have nightmares, I think I deserved a break

Her face was suddenly soft and her eyes melted into liquid butterscotch. "It's okay, sweetie, you don't have to lie. I'm not going to take you to a psychiatrist, but I do want to know what that dream is about so I can see what's scaring you so much about it," her voice was soft silk as she put one arm protectively around me.

"But that's the problem, I don't know what's scaring me about it!" I nearly shouted as my eyes dropped to the floor, embarrassed, my hair still covering my face until she gently tucked it behind my ear.

"What happened in your dream, Ava?" my mom whispered, her voice was still soft as silk.

"I already told you, mom." I said quietly.

"Yes, but there's always a slight difference, now tell me again," she demanded.

"Well," I hesitated before the words began to pour out like they had been bubbling in my throat, just waiting to burst, "I'm running from something in darkness and I don't know what I'm running from, but I know I'm running from something because every time I look over my shoulder I see something that terrifies me, I can see it in my eyes that I'm really, truly terrified and I push myself faster even though I'm really hurt and then I see this circle of light and I reach out to touch it, but as soon as I get close, I wake up," I was sobbing now, letting my tears soak her deep violet blouse. It was stupid to react like this; I mean I never really had been one for emotional breakdowns.

Still, it felt nice when she stroked my hair and said, "it's okay, Ava, everything is going to be just fine." How I hoped it was true.

I kept on crying for about ten minutes and then I pulled away, unwillingly, from my mother's protective arms around me. "I'm going to be late," I muttered, keeping my eyes from meeting her gaze.

"Okay, we'll talk about it more when you're back from school." she said as she pressed her cold lips to my forehead, "have a good day, I love you."

It was strange, the way I suddenly wanted to hug her and let her stroke my hair and my cheek more than anything else in the world. She always said these words before my first day of school each year and it was weird how this time they would have this kind of impact on me. I was never really a big fan on expressing your love and emotion out in front of someone. I really didn't like getting all mushy with the I love yous and hugs and kisses and all that.

I smiled weakly at her and the went to the faucet to drain my face of _all_ traces of tears or anything near that. I was never really into letting my weaknesses show either and I wasn't about to let people see me cry on my first day. After my eyes weren't swollen and red anymore, I grabbed my plain black jacket and headed for the door.

"Bye, mom," I called over my shoulder as I stepped into the chilly wind and snow of Seward. The wind howled all around me and made my cheeks turn scarlet with cold. I shivered as I unlocked the door of my mother's old blue van and climbed in. I turned on the heat as soon as I was inside and I rubbed my hands together trying to warm myself with friction.

Finally, though, I realized that the mildly warm temperature in the van was probably the closest I was going to get to toasty.

I sighed and started the van. Although I was thrilled that my mom and I had finally found a place where she could go out in public without the sun making her skin glisten like thousands of tiny diamonds were embedded in her skin, giving away her secret, I didn't particularly like that where we moved turned out to be one of the coldest cities in the whole United States. Because, well, I really didn't like the cold. In fact I downright hated it, but I needed to make my mom happy; she'd earned that much.

The school wasn't hard to find since it was the only high school in Seward. In fact it was only a couple blocks down from my new home. I sighed again as I drove into the nearly empty parking lot. I guess I was earlier than I thought.

_Here we go again. _I thought to myself, bitterly. The third school I'd been to in the last years of my life since my mom was changed…

No, no,no! I kept trying to push the memory from my head, but somehow, it just kept re-entering my mind.

I laid my head on the steering wheel and took two deep breaths. I can do this. I can do this.

I kept repeating the words in my head trying to make my subconscious believe it. But I failed miserably as I always did when I tried to lie to myself.

I sat upright and grabbed my book bag fiercely. I opened the door and the frigid air nearly sent me down head-first. I had to get ahold of the car door to steady myself. Once I was sure that I could balance myself, I squared my shoulders and walked forward to the building, my hands wouldn't stop trembling as I walked.

_Its not just your first day, it's everyone's._ I kept telling myself the fact that calmed me a little, each time I said it. And it was true. Today was the first day for everyone and they were probably just as nervous as I was.

Except that they had probably been here their whole lives. They all knew each other since kindergarten, but they didn't know me.

I would be the outsider that would pop their little bubble of safety and they would probably think I was a freak.

Not that I had ever been much popular before, in fact in Iowa I hadn't been popular at all. I barely knew the girls I sat with at lunch. But, in Florida, I had had my little circle of friends who I adored.

My very best friend, my sister by heart, the only person that ever really knew what was going on with me was Mikayla. Or Kayla as she preferred we call her. She somehow always knew how I was feeling and what would make me happy. She was the only true best friend I had ever met. She was the only thing it really hurt me to leave behind when we left Florida… when my mom was no longer mortal.

I kept the image of Mikayla in my head with her thick chestnut curls and light tan skin. Her eyes were a pale shade of green that turned to emeralds whenever she smiled or laughed. I knew what she would say if she were here with me: _stop being a baby and run over there, you know they'll love you, everyone loves you_. Then she would laugh and her eyes would sparkle. I felt my eyes sting with tears, I wiped them away quickly with the sleeve of my sweater.

Before I knew it, I had reached the double doors. I took in a big gust of air and then blew it out noiselessly. _I can do this, _I told myself once again_. _I opened the doors and walked in slowly.

There were hallways on both my right and left side but I paid no attention to them. There were two blue benches on either side of a red door that had a sign that said MAIN OFFICE on it. I took another deep breath and pushed that door open.

There was a plump blonde woman wearing a hot pink sweater and glasses typing on an old fashioned computer. She was sitting behind a large gray counter that held many black bins, most of them were empty except for the ones with bright orange cards that read SUBSTITUTE on them. Behind her were many dull green desks with old fashioned computers like the one she was using and gold name plates that I didn't bother to read. There was a vase filled with pink roses on one of the green desks, but other than that, the whole office looked sort of dreary.

A man in a gray suit walked in from a hallway in the secluded part of the office and placed a large stack of papers on one of the dull green desks. Then he walked swiftly away into one of the doors back in the hallway where he came from.

I walked up to the blonde woman behind the counter and stood there waiting for her to look up. Her name plate read Margaret Harrison.

"Yes," she said, looking up from the back of the bridge of her glasses.

"umm… I'm new so I didn't get my schedule in the mail like everyone else," I said, biting my lower lip.

"Name," she sighed, opening a gray cabinet that seemed to be connected to the gray counter.

"Ava Crane," I said, now chewing on the inside of my cheek. "And my middle name is Elizabeth."

She searched through many manila folders until she found the one she was looking for.

"Crane with a c?" she asked, now squinting to read something inside the green manila folder.

"and Ava with a v," I said, playing with my fingers as if they were rubber bands.

"And you're from Iowa, correct?" she said, looking up at me with her eyebrows raised.

"Yes," I answered slowly.

"Okay, here you go," she said placing a wide piece of paper in front of me. The paper listed a variety of classes, the teacher's full name along with mine and the building number each class was in. She told me how to get to each of my classes then handed me a map of the school.

"Thank you," I mumbled, stuffing the papers in my bag and turning my back to her.

"Welcome Hon," she said, flipping back her strawberry blonde hair. "Good luck."

As I turned to walk out, I faintly heard someone say, "have a good day." I paused and turned around, but the blonde woman was already hard at work, back to typing on the out-dated computer. She didn't seem to notice me at all.

A flicker of confusion crossed my face before I shrugged and walked out. I didn't really feel like playing Nancy Drew today.

I opened the door and stepped into the hallway. I didn't want to go wait in the van for fear of freezing to death so I sat down on the blue bench outside the main office and pulled out the schedule of all my classes. I tried to memorize them all and where their location was. I wasn't going to have my face covered by this paper all day.

After saying them all outloud for the sixth time, I figured I knew them well enough. I put the paper back in my bag and stood up. Maybe some people had finally arrived.

I walked to the window and peered out. There were a few more cars, but not many.

I glanced at the circle clock above the doors of the office. It said it was 7:30am. Where was everyone?

According to my schedule, school started at 7:50am. At my old school in Iowa, if school started at 7:50am, then most people would be here at 7:20. So where was everyone?

I decided to wait another ten minutes and if the situation remained the same, then I would ask the blonde lady in the office if the students were usually this late.I sat down on the same blue bench and began doodling aimlessly on the bottom of my schedule.

After I was sure at least five minutes had passed, I stood up and walked once again to the window. There was still the same number of cars there. I gave a frustrated sigh and once again entered the dreary looking office. I walked up to the counter where the blonde woman sat. Once again she looked up at me, this time with an irritated look on her face. I looked down embarrassed and glanced to the side. Through the clear glass doors of the office, I couldn't believe what I saw.

The parking lot was full. Every spot was taken and there were many students busily getting out of their cars and gathering their books.

There was a group of boys walking towards the school in light gray and black jackets. They appeared to be throwing snowballs at each other and laughing.

Ugh. How could someone _like_ being hit by wet, gooey, white balls?

I looked to my right and saw a yellow school bus coming in from a large drive-way. They still had _buses_. How much stranger could this school get.

I shook my head as if that could make all the confusion I felt go away.

I watched from my position at the window as the frightening total of 245 (now 246)students piled into Seward high school. I shuddered, remembering that my old school in Iowa had held more than 800 students in just the sophomore class I belonged to. The one in Florida 1,000.

They came in pairs mostly. One boy with brown hair had his arm around a girl with dirty blonde hair and a pointy nose. The way they looked at each other made me want to throw up. Two girls with the same black shoulder length curls and brown eyes came in holding hands and chattering about their summer, obviously sisters. The group of boys I had seen throwing snow balls at each other were now laughing excitedly as they entered the school.

I shook my head at the secretary who shrugged and resumed her work. I grabbed my purple bag, stuffed the schedule in with more force than necessary, and followed the crowd of students into a narrow hallway.

English in building four with Mrs. Gardener was my first class, I reminded myself mechanically and I suddenly remembered that the building I had come in from was building five. I looked around at all the confusing hallways that formed an X, whirling around like an idiot until I finally gave up and tapped a girl with long, straight red hair on the shoulder. She turned quickly flinging her red hair in my face for only a fraction of a second.

She stared at me with wide, confused pale green eyes.

Painful déjà vu went through-out my whole body. They were the same eyes that Mikayla had. I almost started crying right there, but luckily I composed myself before I completely broke down. Once I was sure I could control myself better, I began to look at the girl more closely.

She was very pretty, I suppose. She had pale skin, paler than mine at least. Her nose was a bit too pointed, and her lips were a little too full, but her eyebrows had a beautiful shape to them and she had gold freckles that covered the bridge of her nose and part of her rosy cheeks. Her hair was a beautiful natural shade of red that contrasted slightly with the light blue flannel shirt she wore and deep blue jeans.

"umm… do you know which way it is to building four?" I asked, "I'm new." I clutched my bag tighter, nervously.

"Oh, I'm going there too, do you want me to take you to your class?" she said, her eyes were slightly calmed, but I could still see thousands of questions for me in her green eyes.

I smiled sheepishly and nodded.

"Which class is it?" her eyes now excited.

"History with Mrs. Gardener," I said, still smiling timidly.

"That's my class, too," her smile became very wide and her eyes got even more excited, "my name's Rebecca, what's your's?"

"Ava," I answered, crossing my arms around my waist uncomfortably.

"Ava, that's a pretty name," she said, her smile fading into a small grin. "Well, we better get to class unless you want to be late, doesn't like people who are tardy."

I nodded and followed her through the far right part of the X shaped hallways.

She did most of the talking, asking me simple questions like where I was from, if I liked it here ( at which I lied terribly) and marveling at each one of my responses.

"Wait, I don't get it, you said you were from Iowa so how can you not like the cold," she asked suddenly, her eyes getting brighter with confusion.

"I lived in Florida before I lived in Iowa and I only lived there briefly," I explained, keeping my eyes away from hers out of habit. I didn't really know why if I really wasn't lying, but perhaps it was because of the question I was hoping she wouldn't ask.

"Why did you move to Iowa?"

Ugh. Why , why, why did she have to know the one question that would catch me off guard? The one question I didn't have an answer to? I mean, I was hoping to meet someone who wasn't so speculative and curious. Just my luck. Seriously, what could I tell her? _Oh,_ _because my mom was changed into a vampire and __she couldn't go out into the sun without her secret being exposed because like any other vampire her skin glitters in the sun. _

No. She would probably take me to a crazy house if I said that… though it was true.

I hesitated and still kept my eyes away from hers, though I could feel her stare boring into my face, her eyes burning with curiosity. I decided to tell her what I told my friends (or so I called them) when I moved to Iowa. Though, none of them had fully bought it.

"It made my mom depressed to live the same place my dad had lived before he died," I said quietly, feeling the tears well up in my eyes. I forced them back as hard as I could. It was just harder to say it aloud.

"Oh," she mumbled, looking uncomfortable. "I'm sorry."

It was quiet for one glorious moment and as I opened my mouth to change the subject and ask her where she was from, hopefully taking the spotlight off of me, she went back to her bubbly self and asked, "so why'd you move here." The same burning curiosity lurking beneath the surface of her calm façade.

Once again, a question I had been hoping to avoid. And this one I truly did not have an answer to.

I waited, hopefully, to get some inspiration for my lie. The true answer to this one was slightly less strange than the first. I remembered it all so perfectly. Like it had just happened yesterday.

We had a nice life in Iowa. It wasn't overpopulated in Des Moines, the city we lived in, so my mom didn't have to hide so much from big city detectives or vampire hunters, although they really didn't get much right. Still, it was better to take precautions. I remembered the first day I went to school there as a freshman. The students overloading with questions about sunny Florida. I remember being shy and not talking much, sort of like now. I remembered sitting with the same two girls at lunch everyday after everyone got tired of me and my single worded answers. But most of all… I remember Kara Ortiz.

Kara was not one of the girls I sat with at lunch. She was a distant acquaintance; one of those people you say hi to in the hallways or talk to when you're in a fight with your friends, but you would never invite to a sleepover.

Then came the one day when I had forgotten my English paper and my mom had brought it to me. I had been in the front office giving my mother a goodbye kiss on the cheek when she walked in to turn in a signed tardy slip. She kept her eyes down for the most part, but then she looked up at me and then her eyes flickered to my mom and her chin dropped. Her eyes grew wide with terror and all the blood drained from her face. Her legs trembled as she opened the door and practically ran out without even turning in her tardy slip.

After that, her eyes stayed glued to my face like I was some sort of magnet. Even when I met her gaze, she never looked away and blushed, embarrassed like a normal person would've. No, she continued to stare with wide, amazed chocolate brown eyes. _I_ was the one who looked away and blushed.

At times, it scared me, made me nervous, but mostly, I tried to ignore it. One day, many weeks after she saw my mom, I was in the restroom and I remember that a boy named Justin had accidently tripped and spilled paint all over me in art and I had gone in to observe the damage. I was in the process of wiping my yellow splattered jeans when suddenly I heard a voice behind me.

"I know what you are," she said. "maybe not you, but your mom is."

My whole body went rigid. I wanted to run or scream but I felt immobile and my lungs felt like they were out of air. I recognized Kara's voice.

"Don't be afraid. I wont tell anyone because, well, I know vampires who mean a lot to me. I won't tell you who, but I know how it feels. And… I'm half vampire," her voice was very strong and steady, but I thought I heard it tremble at the very end. Just like I was. Trembling ferociously.

What? Kara, a vampire? Okay, half vampire, but still, how? Vampires couldn't have children could they? Thousands of questions flooded my mind.

Kara had always been much more than beautiful, that much I knew, but nothing compared to my mom or other vampires I'd seen. Her hair was a beautiful shade between deep dark brown and red, it flowed down straight until it reached the nearly bottom, then it began an array of curls. Her skin was very pale, but not the chalky pale vampires had. She had always had a perfect figure and delicate, beautiful features so I maybe would've thought her a vampire if I knew little of them. But I didn't. I knew everything there was to know about them. And the one thing that really set me back was her eyes. They were not bright crimson or deep gold or even black with thirst. They were deep milk chocolate. Like a melted Hershey's bar.

"How," I managed to choke out.

"You don't need to know about that." she snapped, but there must have been something in my face because her voice and face became very soft, " I imagine you'll need to go soon, though. Before people get suspicious about your mom not aging and all."

"I guess," my voice was slightly calmer, yet it still shook. I didn't like being reminded of my mom staying the same age forever.

She nodded and smiled timidly. " Bye Ava," she said, her voice was full of gratitude and I didn't know for what. Her arms stretched toward me and found my waist. She pulled me in a tight hug and laid her head on my shoulder. Her hair smelled like a mix of peaches and vanilla. I didn't particularly know why, but I wrapped my arms around her back and hugged her tightly. Then with one last squeeze, she pulled away, kissed my cheek and walked gracefully out the door of the restroom. I looked after her astonished.

I remember my mom going berserk when I told her. No matter how much I tried to reason with her she just kept bringing the conversation back on how it wouldn't be safe for me because of the other vampires. She won in the end, though. As always. So she began looking in places that were rainy or cold or cloudy in the directory.

And then one day, she was busily looking through every book we had about states and weather, when suddenly she slapped her forehead with the palm of her hand and said,

"why didn't I think of it before!" she seemed to ignore my constant questions, staring in amazement at the ceiling. "of course we can go there!" she said, turning to look at me with golden excited eyes.

"Where mom, where?" I asked, moving my hands wildly all over the place.

"Seward," she answered as a wide grin spread across her face.

_What, _I thought to myself, puzzled? And the confusion must have been clear on my face because she said, "it's where you were born. It's where we lived for three years before we moved to Florida. You know Seward, Alaska." she said this like she was talking to a pre-kinder. I remember being annoyed.

So we packed for Seward. We left within a week and arrived two weeks ago. I never went out though. I just stayed in my lonely shell back home and hid until this unfortunate day arrived. Now, as the flashback faded, I came back to reality. Back to my hopeless search for an answer.

"My mom got a job offer," I finally said, hiding behind a thick curtain of hair. A lame excuse of course. She would probably catch me in the lie too, but what choice did I have? I had to answer sometime.

"Oh, okay," she said, skeptically. Yep. I was toast. After she said this she remained silent. I didn't mind though in the least bit; it gave me more time to think.

I peeked up at her from under my hair after the silence became awkward. She was looking away into the white blanket outside. I couldn't think of an interesting topic so I just stayed quiet. Finally though we neared a door and she motioned for me to walk in. I walked slowly, clutching my bag so tightly that my fingers ached, and she followed.

The room was small with light green walls in need of a fresh coat of paint. It was slightly darkened by the windows on the far left wall which were draped over by black cloth, not allowing any of the gloomy mist enter the classroom. Individual desks sat in rows of six, taking up the better part of the claustrophobic room . There only remained a small space for a medium-sized mahogany desk topped with an old fashioned computer like the ones in the office, and many yellow papers stacked neatly on the left corner of the desk.

A slightly plump woman with gray hair pinned neatly atop her head in an elegant bun sat in the mahogany desk, typing ferociously on the computer. Her delicate eyebrows were pushed together in frustration forming a small worry line between them. Her thin pink lips were set in a hard line and her pale blue eyes were inevitably focused. Finally, she sighed and pressed her wrinkled fingers to her temples, closing her eyes and tracing even circles for about five minutes. She sighed once more and opened her eyes. She looked over the classroom, scanning the room for possible trouble and finally they rested on me. I stood awkwardly at the velvet- covered windows, staring at the old woman. I wasn't really curious, I just didn't want to meet the gaze of my new classmates, who I knew, were staring intently on my face.

The old woman continued to gaze at me with misty blue eyes. Her arms folded across her chest and she bustled out of her desk and walked quickly to where I was standing.

"Hello, dear," she smiled warmly. "Are you, by any chance, new to this school?"

Her smile made me uneasy as I answered. "Yes, my name is Ava Crane. I'm from Iowa" I tried to smile back, but I knew it looked shaky.

Her smile faded. "Oh," she said simply and hurried back to her desk, now looking through the big stack of yellow papers on her desk.

"Here we are," she said, smiling again.

She hurried back to where I was standing and stared at me with new eyes. Eyes of recognition. "Lillian is your mother." she tilted her head a little as if she were staring at a famous painting.

I nodded. My mom told me we lived here before moving to Florida, but that was a long time ago. I wondered how she remembered us.

"You look just like her," she said softly. "We were great friends." she sighed and looked down, as if remembering something sad.

Then, suddenly, she looked up and turned toward the eager class, forcing me to do the same, but I kept my head down. "Class, we have a new student. Her name is Ava." she motioned at me and I felt my face get hot. "Now. I expect you all to help her with her classes and wecome her to Seward high school." she turned to smile at me and motioned for me to get in the desk behind Rebecca . I walked slowly, not turning to look at anyone, in fear that their eyes would bury me.

I sat in the navy blue chair and placed my book bag and jacket on the back of it. Rebecca turned her head slightly and winked at me. I smiled timidly in response.

The class was fairly simple. Mrs. Gardener first started the class with explaining her favorite poets and why they had gained the title. Then she paired us up (and I was with a girl named Michelle, who was plain and quiet, but that was just fine with me) and assigned us each a poem and the poet and we were to analyze the poem and research the writer. Luckily I got Robert Frost with Fire and Ice. It was one of my most favorite poems and I had already researched Robert Frost back in Iowa, so the assignment shouldn't be difficult.

When class ended, we all hurried out of our chairs and Rebecca waited patiently for me to get my things and then walked with me out of the room. She babbled nonstop. She was friendly, but she seemed like one of those girls who never shut up. It was barely the first day, and she already had gossip on nearly everyone in the school.

She walked me to geometry, but she had a different class and had to leave after many waves of good-bye and hugs. I breathed a sigh of relief when she finally left to her next class. It was nice to finally have a moment of silence.

Geometry didn't go as smoothly as English did. I didn't embarrass myself, atleast, but I had never been good in math and the class seemed to drag on. Finally, though, the bell rang and I hurried out of my seat.

I was just grabbing my jacket when suddenly someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned reluctantly, expecting Rebecca, but, to my surprise, there was a boy with curly blond hair and freckles staring directly at my face with hazel eyes. His white teeth were set into a wide grin.

"Hi, I'm Kyle Livingston," he said, with his hazel eyes sparkling, "and you're the new girl, Ava, right?"

I nodded and looked down. Why was he talking to me? And most importantly, how did he know who I was?

"I was in your English class, remember?" he asked, hopefully.

"Sure," I answered, not having any idea what he was talking about.

"Do you want me to walk you to your next class?" he asked, his eyes getting brighter.

"Umm… I, sort of, am already waiting for someone," I told him awkwardly. Why did he want to walk me to my next class? Besides, he seemed like the popular, over-friendly, jock type. Not at all for me.

His face dropped. "Who," he asked, too alarmed to worry about being courteous. Wait, was this guy actually _jealous_? I stifled a giggle.

"Rebecca," I told him, still holding back a laugh.

"Oh," he said, calmed that it wasn't a boy. "Rebecca Harrowing?"

I shrugged, "She never told me her last name."

"Does she have long red hair and green eyes?" he asked in frustration. This was getting downright hysterical.

I nodded and he smiled, calmer.

"Well, maybe we'll have another class together and I'll talk to you then." he sounded hopeful.

I struggled to answer, still holding back a laugh. "Sure."

He nodded and walked away with his shoulders squared out of confidence. This time, I burst out laughing.

Rebecca caught me in the in the midst of my laughter. "What's so funny?" she asked, confused.

I tried to answer in between giggles. "No.. reason… just really… weird guy." I burst out again.

"Who," she asked, staring at me like I was some sort of lunatic.

"No one,"I answered, composing myself, "I just heard a guy say a funny joke." I held back my laughter, but still kept a sly smile.

"Oh, okay," she answered, still a little confused, but I had a feeling she bought it.

We began walking and she asked what my next class was. Oh man, I guess I forgot everything I had intended to memorize this morning.

"Hold on,"I told her, "Let me check." I pulled out my schedule and stared at my list of classes. Crap. P.E. Its not like I'm really bad at sports or anything, its just I tend to be very clumsy and make a fool of myself when I'm playing them. Yeah, that doesn't mean I'm bad at all.

"P.E," I grumbled, looking down.

"Oh, that's my class too!" she was bursting with excitement. Okay, either Rebecca had a thing for new people or was in desperate need of companionship. I would have to see about getting this girl a golden retriever.

We started walking and were getting close to the gym when suddenly I heard Rebecca's breathing stop short and I swear, I could almost see her heart pounding out of her chest.

"Whats wrong?" I asked her, stopping and turning to face her. She was looking down, but when I spoke, she glanced up nervously, then continued to look down

"n-n-nothing," she stuttered. Okay, what was the deal, first I couldn't get her to shut up and now I couldn't get her to talk? This girl was definitely in need of some psychiatric help.

"Rebecca, seriously, what's wrong,"I asked again, frustrated.

"Okay, don't look, but behind you," she pointed a small shy finger right next to my neck.

Despite Rebecca's pleeding, I turned around to see what was making this confident, popular striving girl act so shy and scared. My eyes slowly, swiftly moved across the ground as I turned and quickly glanced up. What I saw next knocked the wind right out of me.

It was a boy. Probably a junior like us. But this isn't what freaked me out. It was his pale, ghost like skin. I know, I know anyone can have freakishly pale skin, but this wasn't ordinary pale. It was vampire pale. And this guy was gorgeous. He wasn't just cute or good-looking. He was perfect. Perfect beyond comparison. His eyes, his nose, his mouth, it was all perfectly angled to make room for one another. His slightly almond shaped eyes closed in right where his nose began to form a beautiful acute angle. A centimeter below was his perfect mouth. His pale pink lips were not too thin and not too full, just … perfect. His hair was a beautiful deep oak color. It was tousled and slightly wet from the snow.

My hand flew to my mouth and I immediately turned away. Inhale, exhale I kept telling myself. I was at the point of hysteria. My mind was wisked in all directions. Who? What? When? Why? Questions boggled my train of thought. There could NOT be another vampire in Seward!I gulped. A suddenly terrifying thought entered my mind. Vampires don't travel alone. So that meant there were more….

My horrible thoughts were interrupted by Rebecca. She began shaking my shoulders and stared at me dead in the face. "Ava, Ava, helloooo,"she called to me like I was several miles away.

I had to clear my voice twice before I could speak. "What?" I answered in a still shaky voice. I tried to hold it together, but believe me, it wasn't easy.

"Did you not hear me?" she said, "I told you not to look!" Her voice, despite her being annoyed, was very small and quiet.

"Sorry, but I don't think he noticed," I replied, my voice still sounded a little raspy.

"Oh, yes he did, he's looking right at you!" Rebecca said with her eyes widened like a little pre-kinder who had just heard a bad word.

I began to turn again, to see if she was right, but Rebecca clutched my arm so strongly, my arm went numb.

"Oww, let go," I said, trying to wriggle my arm out of her ironclad grasp.

"I'll let go if you don't turn around again," she bargained, "I don't think I could take the humiliation."

I rolled my eyes at her and held my right hand up like I was on trial or something. "I promise," I said, annoyed. Rebecca could be so ridiculous.

She finally let go of my arm, that of which had turned purple, and kept staring at me. I could see a slight twinge of fear beginning to form in her pale green eyes. Now, what was wrong?

"What's wrong now, Rebecca?" I asked impatiently. I knew if we remained much longer here, we'd be late to P.E, but at this point I honestly didn't care.

"Nothing, it's just your eyes…" she began, then shook her head.

"What about them?" I asked, before I immediately answered my own question. "It's the color isn't it? They're darker, right?"

"Well, yeah, like totally black," she said, a little shooken up.

Of course. My eyes always did this. Ever since I was a little girl, my eyes would always darken dramatically in color when I was scared. It always freaked people out, but my mother said it was a gift.

I shook my head. "They always do that when I'm nervous," I murmured.

Rebbecca tilted her head slightly and raised her eyebrows. "Okay then," she said sarcastically. "Well, lets get to gym. I don't want to have to run laps the first day just because we're late."

I nodded and we began to turn when I remembered about the vampire. I was just about to tell Rebecca to go another way when Rebecca said, "Oh, great job, Ava, you scared off the only cute guy this school has to offer." I turned to look in her direction and sure enough he was nowhere in sight.

"Well, I guess I wouldn't have talked to him anyways, but still…" she trailed off and began walking. I followed dutifully and blocked out her constant babbling about how cute the guy was.

How could this have happened? Now I was going to have to tell my mom, and she would probably have all our bags packed by tomorrow morning. But wait… what if he was a _vegetarian_ like my mom? What if he and whoever was with him didn't kill humans? Yes, surely this must be right because if it wasn't, how could they be living here around all these people? Unless…. What if they had gone on a feeding frenzy just before coming here? Oh, why hadn't I gotten a good glimpse of his eyes? I would have to look out for him or any one of them during the day and really find out for myself. But then, my thoughts came to a dramatic halt because, all of a sudden, something Rebecca said caught my attention.

"…and did you see his eyes? I mean, they were gor-geous! What do you think that color was, honey? No, a little darker than honey… Oh, I know, caramel!.." I touched her arm just as she was opening the doors to the gym and the bell rang.

We hurried to our to where the group of kids like us were sitting and ducked our heads in the crowd. "Rebecca, What did you say about his eyes? Were they hazel?"

"Yeah, like I said, a super pretty caramel," she answered dreamily. Then her eyes snapped up. "Why?"

"No reason, I just have a thing for guys with blue eyes, that's all," I lied. My eyes shifted to the P.E intructor. She was saying something about unexcused tardies and running laps.

"Oh," she said, frowning slightly, "Ok then." She then proceeded to launch into a story about a guy she dated with brown eyes who wore blue contacts. I nodded occasionally, attempting to catch glimpses of the conversation. My peace was obstructed, though, by the sound of a whistle. We all marched obediently into the locker room to change. Once inside, we were ambushed by about ten girls. "Rebecca! I missed you!" and "Becca, you look beautiful!" and the always appropriate "I wish we had classes together!" filled my ears. Rebecca responded by giving them all hugs ("Patricia! Lauren! Amber! Jessica! Marissa!") and squealing at all their compliments. Once they had finished with their obnoxious reunion, they seemed to notice me in the background. I heard murmurs of "who's that?" "Is she new?" and "Well, I've never seen her." Finally Rebecca acknowledged that she was not in the spotlight anymore and (quite annoyed) turned to me. "Everyone, this is Ava. She just moved here and she's really nice," She said without interest. However, everyone instantly began crowding me. They began asking me questions and marveling, just as Rebecca had, at each one of my responses, dull as they may be. I decided that here in Seward they normally did not get very many new students.

Finally, they all turned, satisfied and giggling, to change. I sighed in relief. If there was anything I hated more than sushi and evil vampires, it had to be popular girls. I pulled on my gym shorts and saw Rebecca had done the same. She was now rambling on about a boy named Justin and a girl named Emily. I approached her and stood there mindlessly, not listening to a word she was saying.

Suddenly, though, I heard a whistle and everyone proceeded to leave.

I heard Rebecca groan. "Ugh, I hate soccer, but whatever, it's better than flag football."

I shook my head. "I know. Whats the point of kicking a ball into a net." I rolled my eyes. Rebecca giggled and for the first time I saw her eyes twinkle, almost friendly.

When we got out to the field, Rebecca had just finished telling me about her younger sister Madison at band camp when suddenly she stopped short. "Who is that?" she said almost bitterly, her teeth gritted. A crowd of girls were standing around someone, but from where we were standing, I could only see the top of her head.

"Come on," Rebecca commanded, all friendliness gone from her eyes. I followed her obediently and for the first time I got a good look at the girl. My eyes widened and I stopped short of where Rebecca was standing.

The girl's hair was pitch black, beautiful thick curls cascading down to the middle of her back. Her lips were a deep rosy color and her cheeks were flushed scarlet. Her thick long eyelashes brushed against her cheek as she blinked and for the first time, I saw her eyes. They were a bright aqua with gentle streaks of gold. I could not believe how beautiful this girl was. She was gorgeous, perfect in every way….so inhuman. But how could a vampire have rosy cheeks? Much less blue eyes. No, I decided. I'm simply being paranoid. I just saw a vampire 10 minutes ago and I'm agitated. I nodded reasonably and turned to Rebecca. Her eyes were scrutinizing every piece of the girl.

"Who is that?" she repeated, now more agitated than ever before. I shook my head and looked away from her death glare. Everyone seemed to be bargaining for the girl's attention, although she merely glanced at them and nodded at a few of their comments. I honestly could not blame them, though; this girl's eyes were hypnotic. I could hear Rebecca making harsh remarks about the girl's shoes and hair color in the backround. I felt a slight smile touch my lips. So typical Rebecca.

But, just then the whistle blew and we all marched into our designated lines we had been told in the gym and were assigned opponents. Unfortunatly, for Rebecca, she had been placed on the same team as the mysterious girl and was sending death glares at the pour soul every chance she got. My team was placed


End file.
